The Carlyle, where I quite seriously plan to retire, is the very definition of Old New York to me. The 21 Club (the original one) and similar spaces in Manhattan have the strange but wonderful ability to make me feel about as protected from the world as anything could. As a Grande Dame should be, the hotel is a beacon of civility and conviviality right in the middle of the biggest city in America.

Below is the stunningly simple and elegant reception space for check in and other guest service needs.

Reception at the Carlyle

Among the several beautiful spaces within the Carlyle, and I love them all, my favourite is called the Gallery, a unique space that defies logic of what anyone could imagine for a wonderful place to dine. In what is essentially a long transition hallway that is quite wide – a place to do something bold, and create a special dining area . As the guests at table enjoy dining and conversation, the passerby is on the catwalk – see and be seen as they alight into Bemelmans Bar.

Left a detail image, and below Bemelmans Bar, famous for the hand drawn murals done by Ludwig Bemelmans creator of the children’s book, “Madelaine” published in 1939. He provided the murals as an exchange for having his family live at the Carlyle for a time, and in another seemingly unworkable twist, the combination of cocktails and cartoons works to sublime execution in a hushed cocoon of a space in Manhattan.

Back within the gallery which draws you to the entrance of Bemelmans Bar, the tables are set and the diners are the audience. The magic of the space is this; the very delicate balance of allowing those dining to feel intimate while at the same time voyeuristic. Below you glean a sense of the Adriatic origins of the decor, and the unique spacing and traffic flow that allow this special room to work ;

The gallery room at The Carlyle hotel designed by Renzo Mongiardino. It was inspired by the sultan’s room in Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace and is proof that truly inspired design never goes out of style.

Left; Istanbul, The Aegean Sea and antique Persia are conjured up in this one emblem at The Gallery. In this space, the combination of color and pattern in this room is sublime. I am awed by the hand-painted wallpaper depicting vases of flowers and baskets of fruit intricately surrounded by stunning borders. The velvet banquettes with antique kilim appliqués and the red fringed-velvet chairs make me want to sit for hours dreaming of exotic and glamorous locales.

The brass swing-arm lamps with patterned shades cast just the right amount of flattering light. It’s simply one of the most comfortable, and intimate rooms I have ever had the pleasure to experience. Note the scattered pillows used on the banquettes, the coziness, the lighting and the very residential feeling of the space. For those of us from Washington, D.C. we can recall the lovely, now gone, Fairfax Bar in the original Ritz Carlton, Washington, D.C. with it’s knotty pine mouldings and similar warmth. Please let me know if there are any rooms I might include, comment on, or perhaps some of your favourite rooms!

In discussing how color/colour works – and the influence of light with colour, I wanted to show you (as best I can) how some of all this looks in rooms with varied colour and light.

First; a primer on the light entering a room –

One of the first things a designer will do upon assessing a room, is to determine the quality of natural light. What direction does it come from? Is it filtered/diffused or is it direct and somewhat harsh? As you now know from my earlier post – colour is so controlled by light, it’s one of the things a designer will want to control. Ambient light can be a great thing, or it can be a troublesome thing!! Here are some basics, but remember these are only general guidelines!!

Northern Light is usually a cool colour of light, and direct sunlight in your room might not be available (Unless you are are in the southern hemisphere, and then we need to think of your northern exposure as lot of direct light!) For those of us in the Americas, it’s good to use warm colors such as red, yellow or orange in our decor to compensate for the coolness of the light. Blues or greens will make the room appear even colder.

Southern Light is warmer and the “temperature” (or Kelvins) measures more of what we think of “sunny” light. These rooms will ask us for ways to control this light, and overall you can use darker colors in a room with a southern exposure. Blues and greens will “read” much warmer and “happier” in this kind of light. (see the Floridian rooms below!)

Eastern Light gives a room sunny mornings, but muted middays. The morning light is a cooler light compared to the afternoon light, and the afternoon offers no direct light. In this case, I really consider carefully the time(s) of day this room is really being used,but overall, use a mix of warms and cools to balance out the daylight.

Western Light is by definition, afternoon light. Beyond capturing direct light in the afternoon, the light later in the day can read warmer than morning light. Golds and cream really blossom in this light so feel free to use neutrals in this room. If this room is really being used during the morning – I would need to consider how to augment with other lighting to bring the colour harmony to the room. I would tend not to use warm colors that will overpower the room in the afternoon.

Kelvins are used in the measurement of the “temperature” of light, and is a marker of the quality of light that I use most often. More on this in a later post.

below; a room with a cooler, northern light.

Incomparable Geoffrey Bradfield's elegance

above; note the use of grays here. This would seem to fly in the face of the advice above, but here is where the talented eye of an interior designer can make it work by “breaking the rules” so to speak.

below; a room with warm sunny westerly light.

below; this room appears to already have had it’s morning sun via an eastern orientation..

I question the supplemental light planned for this room. Can you find the multiple sources of light added to the decor?

below; a room with full southern light.

There are so many variables in working with light, as you now know – experience can help you know which side of the box to “push out” so to speak. The room above has a great deal of white, punched with strong colour. This is successful only because of the temperature (Kelvins) and the orientation of the light. The whites can appear warmer directly as result of that light. But – what about night-time, when this ambient light is not available? Interior lighting comes to the rescue with the very same principles in mind!

below; the stronger/ cooler colours of this bath would work best in what kind of light?

above; can you imagine this room in northern Massachusetts, facing north?? I can’t!

below; usually, you can just take your cues from mother nature – she does a pretty good job if you ask me!!

below; here is a home that would be REALLY TOUGH to light properly!! (I would still LOVE to create the mysterious and vapourous interiors of this building!)

Now, let’s up the ante – and discuss how to bend the rules a little. We have noted already that with northern light, we might want to stay away from cooler colours, and keep to the red and gold colours to counteract the colour/kelvins of the light coming in. What if we wanted to actually USE that colour of light to our advantage?

below; I think the room below shows how lavender/lilac can actually deepen in hue if done this way.

Again, in the evening, it would be important to choose the interior lighting carefully. Would you place a flourescent bulb in this room? (it's a choice, for sure. Not mine, but a choice!)

below; here is another example of using the existing cool colour of light coming in and how to amplify it.

below; I feel that this room shows a good “recipe” for proper lighting of a room. Many times, the actual lighting might be used a bit more creatively, and concealed in a more sophisticated way. As lighting fixtures are “jewelry” to a room, one should consider the look you want to achieve. Here below, notice the hanging light fixture that throws a lot of ambient light, the lamps with their shades give good general illumination, the wall sconces augment the work of the lamps, and places light at face level – eliminating shadows. Not easily seen here, are the overhead pinspots used creatively and up-lamps positioned for effect when needed. The overall balance of light is what is called for, and this room shows that well.

Remember; the decor is superfluous in this discussion. You might not like how the room is decorated, but you should find the room is lit properly!

below; is another well-lit room. Notice the small lights within the bed for reading, the several different styles of lighting here. This is shown with some daylight coming in, but can you try to see how well you think this room is lit at night? Should a bedroom have overhead recessed lights?

Now, let’s talk about some rooms that have NO outside light at all, and rely just on interior lighting alone. Does this happen? Yes! Can it work? Yes!

above; oyster white and sepia tones are shown to effect because of the amount of lighting, and the use of the reflective floor surface – amplifying the amount of light.

below; in a similar fashion, I was asked to do a room in the corner of a basement. There were NO windows at all. Here is how we did it; BELOW is the BEFORE IMAGE –

Taking up the old floor, framing to the far sides, the raw space almost ready for our features to be placed.

below, the finished room.

I normally would never use this much overhead spot lighting, but we arranged the ultra small halogens in a grid like stars, onto a ceiling plane with Benjamin Moore's "Platinum Pearlescent" sprayed to automobile finish on the ceiling.

above; adding reflective surfaces such as eglomise on the media cabinet and the mirrors placed behind shutters help amplify the light in what is essentially an underground room!

below; a room with warmer greens for a more northern light –

below; a room that is lit at night. What do you think of this “blue sofa” room? How will the (apparent) lighting work in the evening? What do you think of this room?

just click "add a comment" at the top of the post to make your comment on this room

below; a room with apparent southern light, but mostly interior lighting. How do you think this “white room” feel at night?

below; a room that has abundant daytime light. Should this be filtered with sheers, woven shades? Can you determine what will light this room in the evening? How well do you think it will be lit?

below; how would you describe the lighting plan for this San Francisco condo? Is it well-lit in the evening? What is “helping” the lighting along? Do you think this is a well-lit room?

Take a look around your home. Do you feel you have the best colours working with the available daylight? Do you use the room during the day or the evening? Does your interior lighting plan contain enough sources of light, and is it balanced light? Most importantly – is it the right colour/temperature of light?

below; if you have the choice, what kind of daylight would you decide upon, to show this beautiful painting?

Please post your comments by clicking the “add comment” button at the top of this post!

next – we will talk about Kelvins, and why they matter to you. (it’s easier than it sounds!)

Ten years ago during the horrible tragedy, no one was thinking what would be or could ever be built again. Today, 10 years later we are surrounded by the TV, print and online messages of reminder and reflection. Indeed, we should remember. But today, I was reminded of something more – something we all need in our ability to move on. That is forgiveness. I uplink this post at dusk, this September 11, 2011 in observance of the lights that will turn on any minute now in New York City.

The bright searchlights that beam upward from the site is (for me at least) our message to the world – that we are still here, we will come back with a vengeance. It is a message to our lost loves – we connect with you still. It is also a message, that there is hope. There is a future. There is a future ability in our hearts and souls to love and trust again. Somewhere in this journey to find hope again, there must be forgiveness. Indeed it must. For, by not forgiving, we stay in that moment. We would be stuck. By not forgiving we will live with some amount of hate, somewhere, that will cause that part of us to decay.

The lights, known as “The Tribute of Light” is the personification of all these thoughts. As much as I love light, and all things light, these beams of light contain the most meaning from any light. Among the many wonderful things I have seen in my life, they remain one of the most moving.

Below; This video created by F9 Photo in 2010 shows the lights, and also shows the magical effect created by the birds. The birds love to fly in and out of the lights. It is hypnotic and perhaps symbolic; Live and play in the message and truth of the lights. Notice the reflections and the effect of the bird’s swirling flight multiplied in the windows of nearby office towers.

Above; newly constructed World Trade Center towers at dusk, before Battery Park City. · World Trade Center · New York, New York

Above; The extreme height seems best captured by this silhouette image of an almost surreal height. Photo by Roman Staszewski

Above, with the towers and below, the towers gone.

True to our heritage, our nation moves on, and again, the most poignant, dramatic and moving thing I have witnessed in a very long time, were, and are the huge searchlights beaming straight up into the sky from ground zero. The “Tribute in Light” art installation of 88 searchlights, is produced each year on the anniversary. 2011 has been announced as possibly the last year of this memorial being presented. The creative design team consists of architects John Bennett and Gustavo Bonevardi of PROUN Space Studio, artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda, architect Richard Nash Gould, and lighting designer Paul Marantz.

At our Episcopal church today, Father Anthony Parker shared one of the most compelling sermons I have ever heard. In reading below, if you find it better for you, his message can be less of a religious message, to those who are not as aligned with a church, a religion, God or “A God” for that matter.

It doesn’t matter. Forgiveness is as much about an interpersonal and self surviving act than anything else. As Father Parker stated; “For NOT to forgive, is to still be there, to still worship at THAT altar.” Who still wants to live there? Remember, yes. Live at that place? No.

from book of Matthew 18.21 -35.

Then Peter came to Him and asked, “Lord how often am I to forgive my brother if he goes on wronging me? As many as seven times?” Jesus replied, “I do not say seven times but seventy times times seven.” The Kingdom of Heaven, therefore, should be thought of in this way: There was once a king who decided to settle accounts with the men who served him. At the outset, there appeared before him a man who owed ten thousand talents. Since he had no means of paying, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife, his children and everything he had, to meet the debt. The man fell at his master’s feet. “Be patient with me,” he implored, “and I will pay you in full” ; and the master was so moved with pity that he let the man go and cancelled the debt. But no sooner had the man gone out than he met a fellow-servant who owed him a hundred denarii; he took hold of him, seizing him by the throat, and said, “Pay me what you owe.” The man fell at his fellow-servant’s feet, and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you” ; but he refused, and had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt. The other servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and told him the whole story. The he sent for the man and said, “You scoundrel! I cancelled the whole of your debt when you appealed to me; ought you not to have showed mercy to your fellow-servant just as I showed mercy to you?” And so angry was the master that he condemned the man to be tortured until he should pay the debt in full. That is how my heavenly Father will deal with you, unless you forgive your brother from your hearts.”

“Tribute in Light” is one of the most powerful and healing works of public art ever produced. The majestic blue beams are presented annually by MAS, shining from dusk on September 11, through dawn the next day. Visible within a sixty-mile radius on a clear night, Tribute has become a world-renowned icon of remembrance, honouring those who were lost, as well as those who worked so hard to get our city and nation through that terrible trial.

Above; NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 07: Lighting Designer Frank Hollenkamp uses his iPad to shoot video of the Tribute in Lights ahead of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on September 7, 2011 in New York City.

The Tribute in Light is composed of 88 1-degree beams of 7000 watt xenon searchlights focused into the sky near the site of the World Trade Center in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. The illuminated memorial reaches 4 miles into the sky and is the strongest shaft of light ever projected from earth into the night sky. (Photo by Andreas Gebhard/Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Below; Watch the assembly of the tribute lights.

Around the world, people assume that the Tribute in Light is a permanent annual installation. But the reality is that the future of the lights is not guaranteed beyond September 11, 2011. Please support the Municipal Art Society’s efforts to keep the lights shining by making a generous donation online; http://mas.org/programs/tributeinlight/support/ or by calling (212) 935-3960.

Alternatively, anyone with a cell phone can text the word “TRIBUTE” to the number 20222 to make a one-time donation of $10 towards the future of Tribute in Light.

Above; Photo by Thomas Huston c/o Flicker.com

Perhaps forgiveness will open the door to healing. My life experience shows this to happen. Perhaps forgiveness can keep that part of us from going dead. Perhaps, like the book of Matthew above, our act of forgiveness, will spur another act of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is perhaps one of the most self-less and self-protecting things we will ever do. It is perhaps one of the most powerful things we can do. For ourselves as well as for the person forgiven. Truly, whomever your divine being may be, Forgiveness might be one of the greatest acts of Love done in the name of Him or Her.

Below; The open fountains of cascading water that are located on each of the original building’s footprints. I see the massive open cavities, as this flowing and liquid moment – as a place to throw all of the hurt, pain and sorrow into. This is a perfect place to allow the release of those feelings, to allow the possibility of forgiveness to begin. It is my hope that we all have an early oppourtunity to be at these fountains soon.

Below; The lyrics begin with despair, and end with such brilliant hope and determination. The heartbreaking and uplifting song “New York” by Alicia Keys;

My love of light comes most naturally from my need of sunlight, moonbeams, shadow and rainbows. Light itself actually has a sensation to me. The uplifting feeling on a very very clear day. The celestial revelation when the suns ray’s are huge shafts of light splaying from the puffs of clouds.

Even the reflection of the sun’s light splattered across a pool’s surface and throwing dancing synapses of light onto the ceiling.

The softness of light coming through a silk sheer drape.

The harsh, bright and bold light of the Kleig lights arcing into the night sky.

It is no wonder that impressionism, watercolors, stained glass, crystal chandeliers all fill me with wonder and indeed mood. The advances in what we can do with light today are mind bending. In fact, speaking of bending, I recently installed a counter of concrete in a restaurant lounge, that had acrylic embedded within to carry light from one opening to another. The effect is playful and mysterious when you move your hand across the surface, and other areas of the acrylic ends “shadow out” seemingly all on their own. The product is from Sensitile™ and it is called “Terrazzo”.

Cutting edge design with light fills me with awe and delight, and projection mapping is no exception. These two videos below show what I mean.

Projection mapping at its most basic, is a computer’s map of something (boxes, sculpture and here – building facades.) and “reading” the details, fenestration, corbels, dentil moulding, capitals, etc and through programming, commands the laser lighting system to project onto the building. But it is what and how this is projected that the designer has manifested more that what we are to expect.

Below, This version of projection mapping, set in Lyon, France and is projected onto what is known as “The Clestins” – the former lyrical theater. The project is known as “Perspective Lyrique” and after the programmed display, then provides interactive architectural projection mapping, that is, laser light programmed to respond to audience input with an algorythm – from 1024architecture.net 2010.

Below, the blacked-out dark Georgentor gate of the Residenzchloss in Dresden, Germany, sits hulk-like in the dark night, until the computer sizes it up, and begins it’s magic. The windows suddenly light up, as if from within. The turrets fall away from the facade, and the whole frame appears to fall towards you. Light bombs race along the fenestration and tracery of the structure. The building melts, it tumbles into blocks, and builds again, it shimmers into a curtain, and then pixilates into a million pieces.. then reforms. At the 11:00 mark, watch the topiaries, window boxes form… This is all done with light. The shifting panels on the building, the undulating window frames that pull away from reality, are just light projected onto the facade. It’s 20 minutes. I promise you – for almost half of it, you will forget – this is JUST LIGHT projected onto a building.

I love the use of light in design. Coming soon, I will have several posts to talk about light and new things being done with light in more detail. For now, just remember the most basic effects of light on film to make a photograph. Do you recall the books made of many pictures that when you flipped the pages, you had a “movie”??

Below is a link to a movie short using the technique called “tilt shift” photography (here it’s used over 12 hours and thousands of shots around London to creat a movie effect). Tilt shifting is cool – it makes the image appear as if real life is a model train set look. Check it out and see what I mean! I think this kind of technology keeps us moving forward in the design world.

Press the “Sign me up” button on the left to subscribe to my posts – and see the upcoming posts on how light can manipulate the facades of buildings, fiber optics in fabrics, and future post on fabrics used as holograms!

(This Short film was filmed and produced – start to finish – in 12 hours by Matt Gosden and Rob Rackstraw.)